Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-04-Speech-1-097"
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"en.20020204.7.1-097"2
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"Mr President, I do not share the enthusiasm of my colleagues for the results of this conciliation but I am equally warm in my congratulations to both rapporteurs. They won and I lost, to my regret and possibly their surprise. We all know that if the Council had not given in then Parliament itself would have conceded rather than lose either directive. So Parliament had a weak hand but both rapporteurs played it extremely well. I congratulate them for their skill.
They were helped by the early climb-down of the UK Government during both conciliation processes. It was particularly ironic that the UK Minister for Europe should have come to Strasbourg last autumn – to plead with UK MEPs from all parties to vote down the whole Ghilardotti report – to find that not only were Labour MEPs positively promoting the report but the UK representative then bent over backwards to support it as well. Politics is certainly an odd business.
As colleagues know, I am a fervent supporter of information and consultation but an equally fervent opponent of a one-size-fits-all straitjacket for companies of all shapes and sizes. This directive, as amended, is more likely, in my view, to be a barrier to employee involvement than a bridge.
Moving to the working time directive: in my view this is bad legislation. It could have been worse had it limited night-time driving, but I was delighted that the rapporteur finally saw reason and this proposal was removed. But it is still bad legislation in its provisional extension to include the self-employed. As the Spanish representative said, when joining other countries in registering his country's dissent from the final text, it is the first time that the entrepreneurial sector has been included in any directive. I will certainly fight to make sure it is the last. We should want to see more jobs, not less. This should not and must not be seen as a precedent."@en1
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